rec.puzzles Archive

Find English verbs ending in -ATE whose related noun ends in -ITION (as "micturate" and "micturition").

language/english/spelling/ate.to.ition New

New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.

Problem

Find English verbs ending in -ATE whose related noun ends in -ITION
(as "micturate" and "micturition").

[ Editor: problem statement reconstructed from the postings. ]
Show solution
In article <35mv19$g8c@mycroft.rand.org> jim@acm.org writes:
>In article <1994Sep20.140602.12912@cs.cornell.edu>,
>David Karr <karr@cs.cornell.edu> wrote:
>>So far, the only full-fledged example that's been posted is
>>"micturate."
>
>You didn't like my comparate/comparition or ebullate/ebullition (Websters 2nd)
>even a little bit?

The truth is I missed or forgot these examples entirely, and I owe Jim
Gillogly an apology.  Furthermore who am I to set myself up as an
authority?

So I looked up all three word pairs in the OED (1971 compact edition)
when I got home.

"Ebullate" means to be in a state of ebullition (boiling), so
"ebullate/ebullition" is a definite hit, although the OED marks
"ebullate" as obsolete and rare.

"Comparition" means an appearance, for example before a tribunal, so
I don't think it qualifies as a form of "comparate", which means
"to compare" (as one would expect).

Interestingly, the OED disparages the definition
"micturition"="urination," claiming that the real meaning is a
*desire* to urinate (the sense of the Latin "micturire").  On the
other hand the OED insists that "micturate" means "urinate."  (That's
not the sense of the Latin root but it's what the word means in
English.)

On that basis, could a pedant cast doubt on the validity of the
"micturate/micturition" pair?  I'd go with my on-line dictionary
("micturition"="urination") and so my scorecard (unofficial, of
course) of valid solutions would read

ebullate/ebullition
micturate/micturition

-- David A. Karr <karr@cs.cornell.edu>